The Water Lilies by Arslan 1 3 Tropical water lily Grateful thanks to Deborah and Patrick Starke and W. William and Kelly Haines for their support of the exhibition, in loving memory of Dorris Bachman Haines Davis. And to Barbara and Steve Brodie, Shyqeri Kuqi, and The Bee in the Lion Gallery for their generous lending of artworks. Special acknowledgments to all contributors to the exhibition: Arslan, Bee Tham, Derek Lyle, Tom Incrocci, Mary Merello, Lauren Peters, Sally Bommarito, Rita Chiodini, Fred Gauna, Tad Yankoski, Chris Hartley, Andrew Colligan, and Mike Blomberg; and installation expertise by Moira Smith and Rachel Lebo. Particular thanks especially to the Sachs Museum interns who contributed to the research and text of the exhibition: Elizabeth Allison, Taylour Whelan, Archives Sarah Peskar, and Justin Rulo-Sabe. Nezka Pfeifer MoBot Museum Curator Stephen and Peter Sachs Museum Especial thanks to Virginia Harold for the installation photography and Studiopowell for the design of this publication Workers readying the pools with dirt and sand ca. 1930 Collection of the PHO2020-0018 Stringing line to create displays in the water lily pools ca. 1930 Collection of the Missouri Botanical Garden Archives PHO2020-0017 5 Nymphs of the Garden: The Water Lilies by Arslan Stephen and Peter Sachs Museum August 2020 - March 2021 Humans have been captivated by water lilies for millennia. As one of the earliest known groups of angiosperms (seed-producing flowering plants), water lilies are perfectly constructed for life on the water and in aquatic environments, both natural and humanmade. Native to tropical and temperate climates, the family Nymphaeaceae is named from the Greek for the mythical water nymphs, feminine nature spirits that presided over bodies of water. Appearing in the fossil record from the Early Cretaceous period (125–115 million years ago), water lilies have been found as seeds, flowers, stems, pollen, and leaves. As aquatic rhizomatic plants, water lilies are rooted in soil in water, and the flowers and leaves emerge and float on the water’s surface; they are pollinated by beetles, bees, and flies, but can also be self-or wind-pollinated. The ancient cultures of Egypt and Mexico were mesmerized by water lilies. These plants represented several deities, and the underworld, and were often considered a symbol of rebirth and everlasting life. Nymphaea ‘Jack Wood’ and Dragonfly Nymphaeaceae (water lily) Courtesy of the Missouri Botanical Garden 7 The Missouri Botanical Garden has one of the most significant and historic live collections of water lilies. Since the late 19th century, the Garden has hosted aquatic plants on the grounds and in the greenhouses, and several horticultural specialists have focused their talents and vision to propagate and design the Garden’s water lily pools to have a spectacular show of many species and cultivars every summer. This exhibition focuses on the Garden’s history and collections of these exquisite plants and offers an aesthetic interpretation of the beauty of the Garden’s water lilies’ by artist Arslan, who was inspired by Claude Monet’s important series of water lily paintings, Les Nymphéas, which are on permanent view at the Musée de l’Orangerie in Paris. The artworks and specimens in the Sachs Museum were meant to be enjoyed (and juxtaposed) with the live water lily displays in the pools on the grounds of the Garden (which usually take place from May to October every year). Installation View - Evans Gallery 9 The Collections The Missouri Botanical Garden has both live collections and herbarium specimens of water lilies from around the world, with several cultivars created and named here at the Garden in St. Louis, as well as rare species that are now extinct in the wild. Most water lily species have showy solitary flowers (some are fragrant and vibrantly colored) that are connected by stems to rhizomes (a stem system that puts out shoots and roots at intervals), and from which are connected petioles (stalks) that join the leaf (lily pad) to the plant. The leaves are round with a radial notch in Nymphaea and Nuphar species, but fully circular in the species of Victoria and Euryale. There are two types of water lilies: hardy and tropical. Hardy water lilies are able to tolerate colder temperatures. Tropical water lilies flourish in warm and humid climates, and they have either day-blooming or nightblooming flowers. One of the most well-known tropical water lilies is the one named for Queen Victoria, Victoria amazonica, which Garden visitors will find thriving in the heated circular central pool located in the Garden’s Central Axis pools outside the Climatron® during the summer season. Heated pools enable a longer growing season in the extreme temperature swings in Missouri, and, in future, will hopefully lead to a record-breaking year for Victoria lily pad size at the Missouri Botanical Garden. Victoria amazonica Nymphaeaceae (water lily) Courtesy of the Missouri Botanical Garden 11 As angiosperms (seed-producing flowering plants), water lilies create pollen to reproduce, which needs to be cross-pollinated to create new plants. At the center of each water lily are the yellow stamens, on top of which are the anthers where pollen is produced. At the base of the water lily flower are the stigma and ovaries where seeds will form, once the plant is pollinated. Many water lilies take a couple of days to sexually reproduce. Once the bloom opens, there is a pool of fragrant liquid in the center of the flower covering the stigma. Insects who are carrying pollen from other water lilies visit in their search for the liquid, dropping the pollen and performing reproduction for the flower. After the second and third days, that flower’s pollen is released, and it attracts different pollinators who are in search of the pollen and bring it to other flowers for cross- pollination. However, for water lilies that are cross-pollinated under cultivation, such as in the greenhouses at the Missouri Botanical Garden, it is human hands that perform the pollination; in this case, Senior Nursery Manager, Derek Lyle. There are a few different species of insects who perform pollination for water lilies, including beetles, honeybees, bumble bees, carpenter bees, and sweat bees; not all of the pollinators are represented here in this display. The insects most often identified with water lily habitat— dragonflies and damselflies—are not actually pollinators of water lilies. They take advantage of the aquatic environment to mate, feed, and find suitable places to lay their eggs. The Sophia M. Sachs Butterfly House provided all of the specimens and research on all of the insects presented in Nymphs of the Garden. Installation View - Evans Gallery 13 Nymphaea thermarum is the world’s smallest water lily. The flowers of N. thermarum grow vertically, and upon completing the flowering cycle, the plant bends itself into the water and mud below it. The mature plant then releases seeds, and when grown in the proper conditions, this species can self-pollinate, producing seeds that can propagate the plant. N. thermarum traces its origin to Mashyuza, a hot spring in southwest Rwanda on the Bugarama plain. The species has since become extinct in the wild because its habitat has been destroyed, due to rerouting of water sources. In 2011 Carlos Magdalena at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew, England, planted N. thermarum by growing seeds in wet soil instead of planting in deep water like other water lilies. At the Missouri Botanical Garden, Senior Nursery Manager Derek Lyle has propagated this incredibly rare species in St. Louis. Nymphaea thermarum Rwandan pygmy flower Nymphaeaceae (water lily) Courtesy of the Missouri Botanical Garden 15 Victoria ‘Longwood Hybrid’ is a hybrid water lily that was developed by Patrick Nutt of the Longwood Gardens in 1960. A cross between V. cruziana and V. amazonica, ‘Longwood Hybrid’ is known for its creamy white petals and green or bronze lily pads that gradually fade to a dark red at the outer rim. Like its parents, this hybrid is massive, reaching up to 10 feet in spread! However, ‘Longwood Hybrid’ is hardier than either of its parents, withstanding lower temperatures and faster winds. Nutt (1930– 2015) was a widely admired English botanist, who was well known for his work at Kew Gardens and Longwood Gardens. ‘Longwood Hybrid’ Victoria Nymphaeaceae (water lily) Courtesy of the Missouri Botanical Garden 17 Tropical water lily James Gurney with Euryale ferox in lily pond ca. 1890 Collection of the Missouri Botanical Garden Archives GPN 1982-0082 19 Greenhouse to Garden In the 1890s, Henry Shaw’s first head gardener, James Gurney (who had worked at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew as a young man), introduced for planting in the water lilies to both the Garden and Tower Grove Park, where he also later served as superintendent; Gurney worked at the Garden from 1867 to 1903. Victoria Later, Garden horticulturalist and superintendent George H. Pring started breeding water lilies at the Garden and introduced approximately 40 hybrid tropical water lilies during his lifetime; Pring worked at the Garden from 1906 to 1963. Today, Derek readies a Derek Lyle, Senior Nursery Manager at the Garden, water lily pool Courtesy of the Missouri Botanical Garden plans and manages all greenhouse operations and is the water lily expert who creates the aesthetic displays in all of the water lily pools each summer at the Garden. Derek places propagated water lily and root system into container Courtesy of the Missouri Botanical Garden 21 The Missouri Botanical Garden has a talented team of staff who planned and captured much of the material throughout 2019 that you see on view in this special exhibition. Every year, much time and lily pads in the work are committed to care for, propagate, plant, design and display, and maintain the Garden’s live collection of water lilies.